The Apples of Youth
by FullMoonOcean
Summary: The Apples of Youth were, originally, what granted the Aesir immortality. And yes, if a human were to eat one, their years would extend to that of an Asgardian's. But that hasn't happened for a very long time.
1. Prologue

Special thanks to Chrysanthemum5 for brainstorming the idea with me!

I own neither Thor, the D'aulaires' book of Norse Mythology, nor The Illustrated book of Myths.

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**Prologue**

Idunn was the bearer of the apples of youth, and she happily split them among the Asgardians, or Aesir, as there were so few that they had to be cut into small pieces. At least, that's what the legends tell us. In truth, she found the first apple tree and since then they have prospered in Asgard since before the reign of Odin's father. If not for these apples, the Asgardians would die at the same rate as humans do. However, they have been consumed for so many millennia that eating of one isn't even necessary for the longevity that the Asgardians enjoy. Now, that's not to say that they're no longer eaten. Quite the contrary in fact, as Asgardians enjoy these golden apples perhaps even more than their human neighbors. They do, however maintain their potency. If a human eats a bite, or even if a golden apple is diluted, perhaps with other apples in a juice, their life will still be extended as an Asgardians is, and as no Asgardian has truly died of old age since the art of record keeping began, nobody truly knows how long they live. Nobody even knows if they can die of age. Clever humans have, occasionally, tricked their way into recieving an apple. But, that has not happened for a long, long time...


	2. Chapter One, And So It Begins

**It's a short chapter, but what can I say? I love dramatic endings.**

**Chapter One, And So It Begins...**

Thor had been living on Earth for a while, and while the three of them (Jane, Thor, and Darcy,) did live in the same London apartment to share expenses, Thor still sometimes went back to Asgard to visit his friends, who he preferred to refer to as his comrades-in-arms. And he one day brought back an apple.

"Thor, can you come help me with this? PLEASE?" shouted Jane from the bathroom as the faucet sprung a leak and sprayed her in the face.

Thor chuckling, replied "On my way, Jane!" and set the apple on the table. Darcy, coming in at the same time, payed the apple no attention and set about baking with the ingredients she had just bought.

"Okay, the crust doesn't look too bad, now just gotta add the apples..." She then peeled and chopped the granny smith apples into small chunks and mixed them in with the sugar, water, cinnamon, lemon juice, and salt. Darcy hated nutmeg and simply didn't use it on principle. When she dumped the contents of the bowl into the pie crust, she noticed there wasn't enough. "Darn..." so she glanced about, looking for a spare apple that wasn't half eaten. Seeing the apple Thor had left on the table, she put the apple mixture back into the bowl, appropriately prepared the apple, mixed it in, then completed the pie and set it to cook.

"Hey, Thor, where you goin'?" Thor, having managed to stop the leak temporarily, was pulling on the jacket they had bought for him only two weeks ago.

"I must go and retrieve new plumbing supplies for the sink. I'll not go with unwashed hands." And then he went out the door, barely remembering to bring his wallet.

Forty-five minutes later, the timer beeped.

"Hey, Jane, the pie's done!"

Poking her head out of her bedroom door, Jane's eyes fell on the flaky, golden crust. "Ooh!" she said excitedly and grinned as she walked into the kitchen and Darcy pulled a plate from the cupboard.

"You're not eating any?" Jane asked as she cut the crust.

"Naw, I like having my taste buds not burned. I'll wait a while."

"You're the bomb, Darcy." Jane called over her shoulder as she took her whipped cream coated pie back into her bedroom to keep working. She had started writing a book on wormholes a few weeks back, and was trying to meet the publisher's deadline.

"And don't you forget it!" Darcy called back as she sat at her own laptop at the table to keep reading a fanfiction she'd discovered earlier in the day.

When Thor got home, Darcy was just serving herself a piece of pie. Thor looked at the table, then wrinkled his brow in confusion.

"Darcy?"

"Yeah?" Darcy said looking over her shoulder.

"Where's my apple?" Thor looked up at her and pointed at the table.

As Darcy walked back to the table with her slice of pie, she said, "Oh, sorry, was that yours? I put it in the pie."

Thor's confusion turned to horror. "The pie?"

"Yeah, you want a piece? I promise it'll be better than the couscous I made last week." She lifted a bite of the pie to her mouth.

Thor held out his hands, panicked, "Don't eat that!" he shouted.

Darcy froze, then putting her fork down, called out to Jane, "Jane, your boyfriend's wigging out in here."

Jane walked into the kitchen. "What's up?"

"Oh no..." Thor said.

In her right hand was a plate with a fork on it, covered in crumbs.


End file.
